They're Called Doomed Timelines For a Reason
by jdftba
Summary: A Doomed Timeline in which Nepeta dies before Equius. Without his moirail, let's just say that Equius is a bit different. Sadstuck, spoilers for Act 5 Act 2. M for Violence.


Highbloods tend to be a bit more volatile than their lower counterparts. Vriska has killed thousands of trolls to feed her lusus.  
Eridan is downright genocidal.  
Gamzee well You better hope he s had some sopor if you re planning on meeting him any time soon.

But Equius tends to be a bit more gentle, because he s always had his moirail to help pacify his more destructive tendencies. And I m not talking about him just beating up some robots or snapping bows. He s always had her at least He always did in the Alpha timeline

Equius: Talk about Gamzee.

EQUIUS: D - Nepeta, I think it would behoove us to address the e%treme danger in a serious manner NEPETA: :33 you mean about gamz33? h33h33!  
NEPETA: :33 im still not sure if i can believe it!  
EQUIUS: D - That s because you still refuse to 100k upon our b100dlines as the deciding behooviroal factors they are NEPETA: :33 behoovioral? :?  
EQUIUS: D - Behavioral EQUIUS: D - Sorry, my heart is galloping and I canter nunciate properly EQUIUS: D - The horst case scenario is upon us NEPETA: :33 *snort* X33 EQUIUS: D - His is the richest and most noble b100d possible among the high land dwellers EQUIUS: D - As such, he is prone to being more violent and unpredictable than any of us EQUIUS: D - Not everyone has been as lucky as I in the domain of moirallegiance EQUIUS: D - I udder to think what I might be without you, Nepeta NEPETA: :33 udder?  
EQUIUS: D - Shudder NEPETA: :33 oh! thats so sw33t equius, you know i will always be ready to tacklepounce you when you start getting especially furrious :33 EQUIUS: D - Yes, which is among the reasons why I must make your prote%ion a high priority EQUIUS: D - The highb100d has joined a stable of those who are becoming increasingly volatile and murderous as we remain stranded in this laboratory EQUIUS: D - I command you to steer clear of them, do you understand NEPETA: :33 h33, did you mean st33r in the livestock sense?  
EQUIUS: D - Yes NEPETA: :33 well, if youre refurring to vwiskers, i was already plenty scared of her!  
NEPETA: :33 and if you are talking about mr ampurra, he has always given me the cr33ps anyway! so there is nothing to fret over EQUIUS: D - E%cellent EQUIUS: D - I would still prefur you hide, I mean prefer NEPETA: :33 hide? where? :oo EQUIUS: D - Behind that gait NEPETA: :33 gait? you meant gate? what gate?  
NEPETA: :33 what are you STALKING about!  
EQUIUS: D - I mean that door over there, you goshdarned sillyface NEPETA: :33 oh!  
NEPETA: :33 kay! :33 33

You watch as Nepeta scurries off towards the door. She takes a moment and turns around to smile at you before she opens it and leaps through, hopefully to safety. You flinch at the sound of the metal door slamming. Or at least you would have, if it wasn t such an unSTRONG thing to do. You really hope she will be alright.

You turn around and start up the stairs, ready to find the highblood. You hope that it will not come to confrontation, but if the mutantblood was right, it seems as though it will be inevitable. It will be difficult to overcome the long-seated tradition of hemospectral behavior that has been instilled in you your entire life. You ve always been taught to submit to those who are higher and to command those below. But your friends have never seemed to fully grasp the concept. Specifically Aradia. She is was so majestic in her speech and mannerisms, despite the putrid liquid that flowed through her veins. Well. She is gone now, and so you suppose it doesn t help to dwell on it much longer. Especially with more pressing manners at hand. The highblood is finally taking on his role as a subjugglator, granted in a more malicious way than you would have thought, taking into consideration the way he used to completely skirt his responsibilities. As much as you wish to congratulate him in his new-found superiority, you are quite fond of the majority of your comrades, despite their blood caste. So you suppose that you will attempt to reason with the highblood. You are sure that he will come to his senses and refrain from injuring anyone else.

You wind your way through the darkened corridors, searching for clues to the highbloods wearabouts. The distant sounds of bicycle horns and circus music, leading you towards the murderous purple blood. You see a large armored beast laying in the hallway and stop to examine it. It was shot through the eyes with an arrow. Before you can ponder it more, you hear a sharp cry from the next room.

Nepeta? You murmur. You walk forward into the darkness, towards the sound. As you slowly move towards the light of the room, you see two figures, one seemingly crouched over the other.

Heheh. CHECK IT THE MOTHERFUCK OUT. it s the peasantblood. The one still standing says to the other.

You were frozen. You were an immovable force up against a quickly moving evil and you could do nothing about it because it was like every muscle in your body was somehow suddenly made of stone the highblood was standing next to her watch this peasantblood he cackled and no matter what your brain said your body refused to budge and you tried and tried to move the but they just wouldn't respond because they were paralyzed by shock and fear as you watched as the highblood, the monster, grip the girl up squeezing her neck why couldn't you move you just needed to move and stop this she thrashed around in the madmans hand as he lifted her higher suspended only by his fist around her choking her and you watched as her claws sprung out slicing three long gashes across his already twisted face trying to pull at the thick strong fingers constricting her breath and you tried to run to help her but your feet were bolted to the ground way too far away and the monster let out a wicked laugh that was more like a chant than anything else as he squeezed his hand tighter around her she gasped for breath green blood started dripping out of her nose oozing as her mouth opened and closed trying to take in air but none could get through the blood wouldn't stop why would this stop why couldn t you move your heart racing as hers was slowing and his was playing the dastardly songs of destruction you can't lose her she is all you have and you need to save her, help her, keep her, she is your moirail and he cannot take her away but YOU STILL CANNOT MOVE and you saw her eyes flicker over catching sight of you they widened in hope even among their fear you heard her gasp your name thinking that of course you'd be able to save her, please, save her before she slumped down the fight drained out of her just like the blood running down his fingers you finally moved only to fall to your knees nepeta nepeta nepeta the walls seemed to be closing in your throat was closing up maybe the monster was squeezing your neck too somehow even from his perch looking down on the girl who was your whole life you watched as he dropped the body of your nepeta, your pale love, onto the ground like she was nothing and if not for the crippling despair you think you'd feel angry and he took out one of his unholy clubs no no no stop he raises it into the air over her and then it goes black.

You wake up in a darkened hallway. The air is thick and hot and suffocating. You are stiff from sleeping on the floor. You don't know how long you've been here, but it feels like you haven't moved in sweeps. You feel something sticky, dried on your cheek. You slowly sit up and take off your glasses. You lift them in front of you to see what is on your face. What you see is olive green letters drawn on, spelling the words, YoU rE nExT :oD and events that lead up to you here on the floor come streaming back like a physical blow.

"Nepeta!" You scream, jumping up to run over to the green puddle of blood where you saw her strangled by Gamzee. She is sickeningly pale. You kneel down next to her and take off your glasses, moving slowly now. As if any sudden movements could scare her. Even though it is obvious that she has been dead for a long time now.

Her body is crooked and bent out of shape. It is almost as if every bone in her body was shattered. You don't know if they were broken before or after she was dead, or if it was the suffocation or the beating that killed her. At least she was unconscious when it happened. Hopefully. Her face was left mostly untouched, neck was bruised. You could almost make out the individual finger marks where that monster squeezed. You leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss onto her lips, the last hope you had of saving her. Her lips were cold. She didn't wake up. Prospit was too long gone by now.

You found a deep blue blanket in one of the nearby chests. Slowly, you lifted her corpse onto the blanket and straightened out her limbs, wincing as you heard the shattered bones beneath move. You gingerly wrapped the blanket around her and brought her back into the room where you had your last conversation, and set her down gently on top of the robot pile.. You still had her hat on your head from when she gave it to you. You considered leaving it with her as well, but you figured that keeping it with you was best, as a constant reminder of the kindness of your moirail.

You didn't give yourself time to mourn. Instead, you let anger fester inside you. Anger at yourself for not saving her. Anger at her for not staying put. But most of all, anger at Gamzee Makara. He was no longer the grand highblood to you. He was the devil. He was a monster who needed to be destroyed. He was the enemy. And unlucky for him, you don't have a moirail to calm you down any longer.

A Blue blood like yourself should never act without grace. A blue blood must always remain in control of their actions and always act as a model for the lower castes. A blue blood must never raise their voice, and must never utter foul words. You have always tried to keep these standards put upon you by your caste. But Gamzee motherfucking Makara must be destroyed. And he needs to know that it will be you who does it.

"GAMZEE MAKARA." You shout seemingly to paradox space itself from beside the body of your moirail. "YOU HAVE DONE SOMETHING INEXCUSABLE. AND NOW... I AM GOING TO FUCKING MURDER YOUR ASS." You don't apologize for the profanity. You no longer give a fuck. "IF YOU CAN FUCKING HEAR ME, KNOW THAT THERE IS NO WHERE YOU CAN HIDE THAT I WILL NOT FIND YOU AND TEAR YOU APART."

The hallways of the meteor are dark and open and lonely. You know there are more people here with you. Unless that monster killed them as well. But it was a large space for just a few trolls. And so such a large space left opportunity to think. Something you really didn't want to do.

Nepeta was your world. You weren't really all that close to the other people in your group but Nepeta always advocated for you. Always saw the best in you even when you couldn't. She was kind and understanding. She talked sense into you when you were being difficult and allowed you to do the same with her. She allowed you to resist the violent urges that blue bloods are known for, even with your enormous strength. You remember, early in your moirallegiance, the first time you got too worked up, because you had broken something, as always, and you got angry at yourself for being so useless and were about to go mercilessly destroy the first robot you could find but instead, Nepeta was able to calm you down. You were in awe that she was able to bring you down from your rampage with simply some words. And of course a pap or two. Afterwards, you and her were laying together in a pile of pelts at her hive, and you looked over at her. She was playing with one of the smaller ones, tossing it up into the air like an innocent kitten, totally oblivious to you staring. It was that moment that you realized that you would never have anyone else but her filling your pale quadrant. She was your soul mate in every sense of the term. She completed you the way that a friend never could. She seemed to realize how much you cared for her. She was never scared of you. She would often jump on you, or "tacklepounce" as she would say, without even a thought to the fact that your strength was enough to break her in half with just the wrong movement. Because she trusted you. Because, or at least you hope, she was as pale for you as you were for her. She knew you'd never hurt her, no matter what she did. She knew that you'd always protect her. Or at least, she thought that you'd always protect her. Apparently, when it really mattered, you couldn't.

Blue tinted tears started dripping from behind the cracked lenses in your glasses. You felt useless, hopeless. What is the point of all this strength if you can't even protect your moirail? If you can't even get over some fucking shock in order to protect the person you love? How could you let the fucking hemospectral expectations become ingrained in you so much that you couldn t stand up to the highblood even as he was killing your moirail? How could you let that monster kill the only person keeping him together? Let him break her? The tears were flowing heavily now, silent sobs wracking through your body. You had hoped that you could wait until the Gamzee problem was taken care of before you broke down. But apparently that was not what was going to happen.

You fell up against the wall and for one of the first times in your life you simply allowed yourself to be lost in the sadness, in self-pity, in self-hatred. In extreme, all encompassing, anger at the monster responsible. Sadness and loss had ripped a hole through your chest and slowly passionate anger and thoughts of revenge were filling it. The highblood. The monster must be punished for what he had done. You felt the rage pulsing inside of you. The sorrow over losing Nepeta was completely wiped out and replaced with the physical need to tear Gamzee to shreds with your own hands. You could not think of anything but mutilating the flesh of his body as the bright purple blood spills from the gashes in his veins over your fingers.

Well then motherfucker. You look up to see the source of your outrage hanging from a grate a few feet above you, one of your bows in hand. IT MOTHERFUCKIN LOOKS LIKE YOU HAVE FINALLY MOTHERFUCKIN EMBRACED THE MURDEROUS FEELINS INSIDE YOU. He shouted maniacally, breaking the bow with a loud crack. Even through your hate the tiniest sliver of fear was able to make it through with the power of the dark chucklevoodoos that those of the monster s blood caste were so famously in control of. It s too motherfuckin bad that you won t get to live much longer. His voice came back down to a whisper, YOU NEVER HAD THE MOTHERFUCKIN CHANCE TO MOTHERFUCKIN USE EM! And with that he jumped down on top of you. The string of the bow was wrapped quickly around your neck, constricting your breath just as he had done to Nepeta. The thought of Nepeta propelled by your newfound animosity towards the highblood, and even the hemospectrum for all it s done to you and all the pain you ve caused others because of it, all of this allowed you to fight back against the monster. You reached forward and grabbed Gamzee s head and with a quick twist, his neck was broken. He laughed.

Do you motherfuckin think you could kill me, motherfucker? He said, his grip on the bow pulling, bringing the cord just a bit tighter as his head fell to the side, no longer supported by his severed spinal cord. YOU CAN T MOTHERFUCKIN KILL THE MIRTHFUL MESSIAH MOTHERFUCKER. You quickly grab hold of the madman s hands, preventing him from pulling any harder and cutting off your air supply completely. You quickly and easily sever the bow from the string, releasing the pressure around your neck.

Well I better give it my best shot. You punch the underside of his jaw, and a resounding crack of bone echoes through the hall, as the limp body of the clown flies through the air. He hits the far wall with a loud, HONK and you leap over to press him to the floor. The royal blood is streaming from his nose and instead of being in awe of the color you simply bash his face in again, drawing more of the putrid liquid. His skull caves in, deafening cracks fill in the space between his honks, a smile always on his face. You better try harder than that motherfucker. IF YOU WANT TO MOTHERFUCKIN KILL ME. You give up on his battered head and start frantically beating the rest of his body. You start ripping the limbs off his body and yet they still move, a realization that shocks you and delights the monster below you. Purple blood is pulsing out of the areas where you have pulled apart the flesh. Pieces of him are strewn about the room, and yet he will not die. You tear and shred and mutilate and sever every section of available grey and purple mass that you can find if only to end the noise streaming out of the creatures mouth. Your body is covered in his blood to the point where its more purple than grey and he still moves, the pieces coming back together of their own accord, only for you to rip them apart again. You don t know how long you will have to go at this, but you know that you will not stop until one or both of you are dead. How is there still more blood? How is he still smiling even with his jaw ripped from the rest of his skull? How is he still laughing even with his windpipe split and tattered? How are the devilish honks still resounding through the empty hall? How is he not dead?

Equius: Be the other guy.

Karkat Vantas, days in the future. You have not heard from the majority of your friends since well since Eridan freaked out. You don t even know how long ago that was. Feels like bodies have been popping up all over the place.

You still have Sollux, at least. He is mostly alright. Despite the whole being blind thing. You ve been wandering about this seemingly endless meteor. You see a chest a bit ahead of you and decide to look into it. Maybe it has some clues as to where everyone else has gone. It has some of Nepeta s tea kettles. You go down a flight of stairs and enter into what looks like Equius and Nepeta s room. Theres a large pile of robot parts to one side, with something wrapped in a blue blanket on top. Oh god. You breathe, and run up to the bundle, with Sollux right behind. The blanket is lightly stained with dried green blood. But you have to check. You reach out and move the blanket aside to see the cold dead face of Nepeta Lejoin. You cover her up and Sollux reaches out to pull you into a hug as you sob into his shoulder.

It s alright, KK. We ll figure it out. Sollux said, his own tears dripping from his hollowed out eye sockets.

Sollux. We need to find Equius. He s probably freaking out Karkat said, pulling himself from his friend s grasp.

KK, I don t think He trailed off, alright with letting Karkat think that Equius would somehow be able to survive for more than five seconds without his moirail at least for now. Best not to crush his heart again so soon.

Of course, it didn t take very long to find Equius. He was laying face down in a monumental pool of deep purple blood. Way too much for someone to survive losing, but Gamzee was no where to be found. Karkat ran over to Equius and turned him over. He was cold. He had been dead a while, but he didn t have a scratch on him. Wha-? How did-? Karkat looked over at Sollux questioningly. I don t know, KK. Exhaustion, maybe? Let s just He looked down at Karkat, crouched over the body of the blue blood. We ll figure this out, KK. Sollux said, kneeling down carefully to comfort his friend. Just then, they heard a honk from the darkness of the long hall. Sollux? Karkat said, barely a whisper.  
Yes, KK? he replied, both of them looking into the shadows.  
I think this is a doomed timeline. 


End file.
